Blasts from past in Poland’s new government

Poland’s newly elected Law and Justice party government named some of its more controversial figures to senior ministerial posts on Monday.

Beata Szydło, Law and Justice’s nominee to be prime minister, announced her lineup in Warsaw on Monday, sharing the stage with her conservative party’s founder and former Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, a divisive figure in Polish politics.

The presence of Kaczyński at the unveiling and the makeup of the government suggest the party, which secured an unprecedented absolute majority in last month’s parliamentary elections, feels less need to project the moderate image it cultivated during the recent campaign.

Antoni Macierewicz was chosen to be defense minister, despite campaign promises that he wouldn’t get the job. Macierewicz, a leading figure in the anti-communist opposition before 1989, served as deputy defense minister during the party’s previous brief stint in power from 2005-2007.

During that time he was responsible for abolishing the military intelligence services, which he said were filled with communists and Russian agents. In the report that he filed following the service’s dissolution, many people who were named as collaborators later successfully sued the government for libel.

Macierewicz built up a powerful position on the right of Polish politics by becoming a close ally of the ultra-Catholic Radio Maryja radio station. He was also an exponent of the theory that the 2010 airline disaster that killed Lech Kaczyński, Poland’s president and Jarosław’s twin brother, as well as many other senior officials, was an assassination, not an accident as Polish and Russian investigations found.

He will play a key role in the new government at a time when Poland is ramping up its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP and modernizing its military in response to the perception of a growing threat from Russia. Many of the contracts, ranging from attack helicopters to air-defense systems, could be reopened by the new government.

“Kaczyński went against public opinion in making this decision,” said political scientist Norbert Maliszewski, adding that some of the personnel choices will come as a shock to centrist voters who had abandoned the Civic Platform party, in power since 2007, for Law and Justice. “Kaczyński wanted someone he could trust absolutely in this post.”

Other new ministers include Zbigniew Ziobro, who returns to the justice ministry he headed under the previous PiS government. He was the public face of the party’s law-and-order crackdown, often announcing highly politicized prosecutions at news conferences. His methods created concerns with civil rights groups, who worried that his eagerness to rack up prominent anti-corruption cases trampled on proper procedures.

Kaczyński expelled Ziobro from PiS in 2011 after the men clashed over the direction of the party. Ziobro made his way back in to power by heading a small, right-wing party allied to Law and Justice (PiS) that is key to keeping its majority of 235 seats in the 460-member parliament.

‘Reassuring messages’

In other notable picks, Witold Waszczykowski was named foreign minister. He is seen as pro-American and an enemy of Radek Sikorski, the former foreign minister.

Also getting a top spot was Mariusz Kamiński, an anti-communist activist who returns as coordinator of Poland’s secret services. He was convicted of abuse of power by a Warsaw court in March and sentenced to three years in prison for his actions while running the elite Anti-Corruption Bureau under the previous PiS government; he has appealed the verdict.

Konrad Szymański becomes minister for EU affairs. The MEP, who served from 2004-2014, was chosen several times by Polish media as the country’s best European parliamentarian.

The new government has come in for criticism because Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said he was unaware that Wednesday’s EU leader’s summit in Malta will be followed by an informal meeting a day later to discuss the migration crisis — the same day he set for the first session of parliament. That means Poland may not be present alongside other EU heads.

“Szymański is supposed to send a reassuring foreign policy message that not much will change in Poland’s relationship with the EU,” said Maliszewski.

Mateusz Morawiecki, a former banking executive, becomes development minister and deputy prime minister. Markets have been worried that expensive promises made by PiS during the campaign could wreck Poland’s public finances and hurt banks. Morawiecki’s nomination to the top economic job in Szydło’s cabinet is intended to calm them.

“We think he solves a key problem for the PiS — having been a well-known and respected leader on economic policy,” wrote Peter Attard Montalto, an analyst with Nomura, the investment bank. “However, we believe he would only have been given the job by Kaczyński if he bought into the election campaign platform of PiS on economic policy.”

The government could be sworn in as early as Thursday.

The two weeks following the October 25 election have been marked by chaotic public relations that saw Szydło denigrated by senior members of the party, suggesting that Kaczyński was calling the shots.

“This is going to be a government of a weak prime minister surrounded by very powerful personalities,” said Maliszewski.

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Veritas-Semper

Mr. Cienski continues his pseudo-journalistic work including innuendo and outright lies. The winning party, conservative Law and Justice Party, never promised that Mr. Macierewicz ‘wouldn’t get the job’ as Minister of Defense. Instead, Mr. Gowin was introduced as “the leading contender” for the position during successful the campaign.
The smear campaign to which Mr. Cienski refers to had/has its seat on Czerska Street, the same work place residence as that of Mr. Cienski.
The entire article continues in Mr. Cienski’s well know tradition of un-sympathetic, opinionated pieces in the guise of journalism. Even the black and white photograph of the 2 key leaders in Poland’s politics is meant to register aversion on the part of the reader.

Posted on 11/9/15 | 7:56 PM CEST

Barbara

I totally agree with the last comment

Posted on 11/9/15 | 8:41 PM CEST

Rafal

Jan Cienski is lying about Mr Macierewicz.

Posted on 11/9/15 | 8:45 PM CEST

Polish

@Veritas-Semper.
No it was proposition. Beata Szydło never said that Gowin WILL be defence minister. It’s lie, she said ‘maybe’, but it’s not sure. But it’s clear that WSI will do everything to destroy Macierewicz.

Posted on 11/9/15 | 9:24 PM CEST

knight

I am one of those ‘centrist’ voters Cienski brands as supposedly disappointed with the picks. I am very happy that Maciarewicz, Kaminski and Ziobro are in the government. These are honest, competent and dedicated to Poland people. The same cannot be said about Cienskis’ paymasters from Gazeta Wyborcza. It is high time Poland shake itself from implicated in communist court judges and their ideological friends in the media.
I find it despicable that under Mr Tusk and the previous government people who fought against corruption were persecuted and the media instead of looking at the hands of government worked full-time against the opposition. Mr. Cienski represents people who are anti-democratic, corrupt, kleptomaniac and would like to have total power in the state.

Posted on 11/10/15 | 2:20 AM CEST

Polish guy

regarding Cienski & his bias opinions full of lies,hatred and contempt for Polish People.
Cienski your and yours Paymasters from Germany,Soviet Russia ,Israel time of interfering in Polish affairs is OVER.You and yours like will be brought to the Justice and try for Treason.
WE Polish People after 74 Years of fighting chose to have democratically elected Government representing our Polish Interest.
Your lies and hatred want change this empiric fact.

Posted on 11/10/15 | 3:04 PM CEST

Gilbert

Politico’s use of negative auperlatives is funny: “ultra-Catholic” Radio Maria LOL be careful Politicos, you might even hear the words Jesus, Mary, or Joseph spoken!
Yes Politico, the rest of the world is not like you, not filled with secular humanists. Good for Poland!

Posted on 11/10/15 | 6:31 PM CEST

greg

all of the previous commentators are clearly supporting the winning Law & Justice party… everything that is not a positive about their party is a lie… go figure

Instruktor

The commentary of Mr. Cienski omits several key facts relevant to the the current political developments in Poland:
1. The recently terminated rule of the Civic Platform and Polish People’s Party (PO-PSL) was marred by nepotism and frequent violations of democracy. A few examples:
– During the rule of PO-PSL coalition, independent journalists were repeatedly harassed by the security agencies. The staff of, among others, “Gazeta Polska” had their homes searched. In May 2011, at six in the morning, agents of the Internal Security Agency entered the flat of an Internet user who ran a satirical website on Bronisław Komorowski.
– Independent journalists were dismissed from their posts as they demanded honest investigation into the Smolensk crash. Tomasz Sakiewicz and Anita Gargas, among others, lost their jobs in the public media. Cezary Gmyz was dismissed from the editorial staff of “Rzeczpospolita” for publishing information indicating that there were traces of TNT found on the wreck of the plane that crashed at Smolensk. Later, the information was confirmed by the prosecutors leading the investigation.
– In June 2014, agents of the Internal Security Agency raided the office of a weekly “Wprost” which revealed stenographic records of conversations held by most important politicians. The agents wanted to confiscate computers and data storage discs belonging to the journalists. The so called tape scandal that erupted a few days earlier, provided evidence, among other things, that state-owned companies subsidized only the media writing in favour of the government. They ignored such indicators as reading of the press. Media houses were pressed not to place their advertisements in the independent press. For that reason a huge part of the media, Gazeta Polska included, were deprived of paid-for commercial advertisements.
– In December 2014, two journalists (Tomasz Gzell of the Polish Press Agency and Jan Pawlicki of Telewizja Republika) were arrested. They covered the protest held at the headquarters of the National Electoral Commission. For a week or so the Commission was not able to provide the results of the local elections which agitated Poles and some decided to occupy the premises of the Commission. The journalists were arrested even though they had their identity cards. They also faced a lawsuit against them. To this very day the results of the last local elections remain highly questionable, the proof being 2 thousand protest notes lodged in local courts.
– During the last 8 years, the previous government kept journalists and citizens under surveillance as a usual practice. Only in 2014, the secret service applied to have 2,177,000 telephone billings. In Europe we were definitely in the lead. The District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw is having an investigation into the wiretapping of independent journalists. In all likelihood, the service had no court warrant to do so.
– In May 2015, after lost election by President Bronisław Komorowski, the PO-PSL coalition violated the constitution and decided to elect new members of the Constitutional Tribunal. The politicians of the retiring coalition wanted to limit the right of the new ruling party to elect judges of their choice and appropriate the Tribunal completely. Today, after the reforms implemented by the Law and Justice (PiS), the judges elected by the Civic Platform still constitute the majority. They occupy 9 of 15 seats in the Constitutional Tribunal.
These are just a few glaring examples.
2. The government formed by the PO-PSL coalition were also involved in many corruption scandals. Under their nose a pyramid scheme Amber Gold flourished, thousands of Poles were cheated and deprived of their savings. The public said enough is enough and two months ago in democratic election removed the PO-PSL coalition from power.